I think my pc's firewall and avast has been breeched

reply to post by phishyblankwaters


I love linux guys and im on my way back... at the time WINE sucked and linux studio was not powerful enough for me (believe that or not lol) but i have no use for windows anymore... plain old slacking on the install is all, plus i didnt want to listen to my girlfriend nag about not knowing her way around...

Not sure what browser you're running, but in Firefox there's a free extension for downloading videos. It's called downloadhelper. Works great and less messing around.

But returning to your concerns, try the following to see if anyone's snooping:
Go to start > run
Then type in "cmd" (without the quotes). Hit Enter.
Then in the cmd screen type "netstat -anbv" (ditto without the quotes). Hit enter. You'll get a list of what's running with internet connections (either "established" or "listening"). Then just open your task manager, either as you did before or by right-clicking the lower bar and selecting it.

Compare the PIDs in the cmd screen list with whatever's showing in the tsk manager. (Just click on the PID tab in the task manager page to place them in numerical order. It saves time hunting for them. ) If you see something suspicious that's showing in the cmd screen as "established", and you don't think it should be there, then kill the process in the task manager.

Now shut down and reboot in safe mode, open task manager and also run the same cmd line again and if the suspicious one is still coming up, then bail out of the internet and run your anti-virus, anti-malware sweeps. It's important to do this while you're still in safe mode.

Get back to us when you've done that. Meanwhile, maybe one of the mods will move your thread to the appropriate forum. (We have one for computer and tech issues.)

Mike

Originally posted by Libran1
reply to post by phishyblankwaters

 

I love linux guys and im on my way back... at the time WINE sucked and linux studio was not powerful enough for me (believe that or not lol) but i have no use for windows anymore... plain old slacking on the install is all, plus i didnt want to listen to my girlfriend nag about not knowing her way around...

my last girlfriend was a windows user, so i just said look if you want to use my computer to get internet you have to use linux, end of story (she was in a caravan at the time so no computer herself)
With in a week, she was like oh this is so easy, and was even telling her friends on facebawk, oh i cant get a virus from a bad link now like you guys can..LOL its funny, they are so scared of it at first, but the GUI is so universal, you can make it like windows anyway...

reply to post by Libran1

I'm also a fan of non-win OS's. I keep UBUNTU handy. Useful for recovering win OS when they have a registry crash.

BTW if you're not using Firefox I can recommend it.

Okay must get off to work... Keep us up to date. If you get really stuck then check out the thread list for the computer help and discussion forum. We have some amazing geeks here and after checking a few threads you'll see a few who clearly know their onions. I'm sure if you PM'd one or two they'd be glad help you out.

Mike

reply to post by Libran1

I love linux guys and im on my way back

the only thing lacking is game support which is changing as open source video drivers are helping with that and as the linux community starts to unify and get some type of conformity among distros, it will be a thing of the past.

Sure windows can be a pain.

Try rebuilding a crashed linux kernel. I use it all, AND I have a Mac, so I'm not talking out of my ass, linux is not the instant windows replacement people seem to think it is, and it's no more secure than windows 7 is. The reason it gives the illusion of advanced security is:

lack of market share, just like mac, not worth coding a virus for
too many variations out there to be an effective virus platform
most linux users would be considered moderate to advanced computer users

I can tell you linux horror stories that would spam this thread for pages, and I can also give you windows based stories as well. don't fool yourself into thinking by installing linux you are safe. Linux has more security patches per month (even just picking 1 of the top distros) than windows.

I will never switch over to linux completely, it will always be a duel boot situation for me as my system is as secure as any linux box AND I can run all the new games. I never have to build an installer for a piece of software or driver. I never have to drop to the command line to do a simple task. When i install a program, I don't have to go through a list of 50 different links for 50 different package dependencies.

But then again, I can't write a simple Batch script in windows anymore. I can't modify system files while they are in use in windows either. For the mass imaging lab I built at work, windows just wasn't up to the task. We used to run ghost cast server from 2 windows boxes, one being a domain controller in the government network.

Once we upgraded the network to gigabit and started using windows 7 ghost was out, we'd have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, as we need the newest version and it's a pay by use license now.

So I went the FREE way with F.O.G.. Unlike windows software, this is free, and a horrific pain in the ass to actually setup and maintain. Having to build custom kernels with specific unsupported drivers and coding the DHCP server really took me under the hood and let me tell you, it's not pretty at all.

reply to post by phishyblankwaters


Agreed, but i will have a windows pc but thats it and MY PC will run linux, maybe the laptop too